Whisky, and why I drink it

It's the most diverse, unusual, variable, interesting, delicious beverage on the planet. One could drink two drams a day for the next 50 years and never discover all there is to taste, smell and savour.

Matured in a Sauternes cask, as the label says. This one is floral and herbal on the nose, but once it gets on the tongue, it turns to fruit and fruit peel, with a slight bitter floral note that I identify as juniper berry. That stays with the whisky all the way to the finish. It's an unusual whisky, this one, I'm still tasting a very faint hint of peach and lemon thyme after 20 minutes.

This is what Nikka is putting its aged casks towards, rather than issuing aged Yoichi or Miyagikyo single malt. It's not bad really, I don't know if it's better than the 17 yo. There's a lot of very nice red grapes, coupled with a hit of alluring rancio so pungent it's almost cheddar cheese. That evaporates quickly though, to be followed by yeasty baking bread and more of those heavenly red grapes.

Sherried Islay is always a treat. This one is no exception. Great heaving notes of spice (cloves, mainly) with sulphury burnt plastic edging sweeter sherried notes on the nose. Lots of woodsmoke on the tongue and in the finish - not just any generic smoke, but clearly identifiable as burning driftwood. Very good!

Barrel 184, warehouse H, rick 50, bottled 7 July 2014. Quite specific, the batch! This one is earthy, autumnal, with good sweet bourbony flavours underpinned by salty, musty notes. It's not unpleasant, and the contrast is appealing. One of the more complex bourbons - I enjoyed it very much for just this reason.

A rather jammy, fragrant cola, like a really good alcoholic root beer. I really like this one a lot, it's satisfying on so many levels - good complexity, pleasant mouthfeel, excellent variety of flavours. Excellent whisky, great price as well!

Hmm. Lots of estery fruit, slightly tart. A good deal of sherry in this one - not sure if it's the whisky or the wood. Slightly smoky on the nose, this becomes (buttered?) toast on the tongue. My grand conclusion is that I need to drink more Linkwood.

A nice gentle Speysider, fruity and a little rich. Tastes like Glenlivet in some ways, but it's also clearly not Glenlivet. It's chocolatey, slightly malty, with notes of white grapes that also remind me of Penderyn. It's a chameleon, this one.

Single grain whisky from Cameronbridge. Marketing fronted by David Beckham, intended to make grain whisky look cool. Actually, it's not half bad. It manages to avoid the sweet fruity estery mode favoured by most grains, and instead features baking bread, yeasty, and - yes - grainy flavours. Good apples too, with faint notes of bananas on the nose, just to remind me it's a grain whisky. And for some reason, I really, really like the colour.

Lots of chocolatey Glengoyne oomph. But this whisky is really fruity and jammy, with slightly tart and slightly bitter notes in among all that raisins and chocolate. Nice grapey finish, although this isn't overly sherried in character.

Pleasantly floral, but creamy and heavy on the tongue. Reminds me of a good gin in some ways, but without the juniper of course. This is really good whisky, with excellent complexity. Surprisingly, it doesn't take water well, losing all that floral notes, and becoming a tad heavy on the spice. It's been a while since I had a Scapa, this was a good way to get back into it.